Naspers offloads Internet assets for R2,7bn

South African-headquartered media and Internet giant Naspers on Monday said it would sell its holdings in online retailer Netretail and price comparison site Heureka to the Czech-based investment firm Rockaway Capital for US$201m (about R2,7bn).

The move is intended to “optimise” Naspers’s group structure, it said in a statement.

“Naspers acquired Netretail (a Czech-based online retailer) and eMag (a Romanian-based Internet retailer) in 2012, with a plan to merge the two assets and create a leading e-commerce platform across Central and Eastern Europe,” the group said.

“Diverging strategic views prevented the merger from being completed. Naspers subsequently decided to focus on eMag as its preferred [e-retail] platform in the region.”

As part of the transaction, Naspers is also selling Heureka, the group’s online price comparison platform in the Czech Republic.

“Naspers’s other businesses in the region are unaffected by this disposal,” it said, adding that the transaction is subject to antitrust clearance.